Police have been called in to look into alleged dirty tricks relating to the upcoming county elections.

Leaked e-mails show that County Hall deputy leader Nicholas Rushton offered a pre-election deal to get a rival candidate to stand down in the Valley division in North West Leicestershire.

For two years, a legal row between the council and community has been ongoing over the use of Hardulph's Primary School, in Breedon on the Hill, as a community centre.

Villager Simon Jones decided to stand as an independent in the June 4 elections because he believed that Coun Rushton had not represented the area properly on the issue.

As a result of this challenge, several e-mails show that Coun Rushton said he would guarantee a new village hall, and this would happen if Mr Jones pulled out of the election, which he did.

The paperwork also includes an e-mail from council leader David Parsons giving his and County Hall's commitment to build a new community hall.

In a number of e-mails between either him and Simon Jones or a member of his election team, Coun Rushton said: "What David (Parsons) and I are promising is new facilities whatever.

"A commitment from the leader and deputy leader is as good as it gets. We will be the administration and officers act on our instructions.

"If Simon was elected, it would actually harm your chances of a new facility as the administration would treat Simon as an opposition party member. The best thing is for Simon to withdraw.

"I am happy also to confirm reimbursement of your expenses to date and a joint leaflet of explanation, promise etc delivered and paid for at my expense."

The e-mail from David Parsons to Simon Jones said: "I am happy to give my personal commitment and that of the administration at County Hall to the provision of new community facilities at Breedon within the lifetime of the next council (a period of four years). I do hope that we can count on your help in this project."

An arrangement was drafted by Mr Jones' election team to be signed by him and councillors Parsons and Rushton.

But when he saw the agreement, Coun Parsons said he would not sign it.

He took it to chief executive of the council John Sinnott and once the authority looked at it they referred the agreement to the police.

Yesterday, Coun Parsons was asked about his written guarantee and he said that he had done nothing wrong.

He also said it was "rubbish" that he was being investigated by police.

Coun Rushton refused to speak to the Mercury on the issue, as did Simon Jones.

A police spokesman said: "Leicestershire County Council has referred a matter to us concerning allegations relating to conduct in public office and as a result we are now looking into this matter."

Police would not confirm what they are looking into, and it is not clear whether the police had the e-mails when they were called in, but these were sent to them by opposition councillors yesterday.

Opposition councillors said they were angry, and the e-mails have also been sent to the council's management, the district auditor, the Standards Board for England and the council's own standards board for investigation.

Labour leader councillor Matthew O'Callaghan said: "The leader and the deputy leader should resign if they have been found to have misused public office, promising to spend millions of Leicestershire taxpayers' money on securing a local Conservative victory in the county council elections.

"I asked the leader at the special Cabinet meeting, held on May 22 to discuss the Breedon issue, if there was any election discussion or deal on the Breedon issue and he replied 'Of course not'.

"The e-mails suggest otherwise."

Liberal democrat leader Simon Galton said: "Prior to this meeting, the Liberal Democrat group were extremely concerned that the Conservative administration were intending to allocate money contrary to the agreed council budget.

"It would be completely wrong for the Conservative administration to provide a community building in one community to ensure the re-election of the sitting Conservative councillor."